In the continuous casting of steel slab, a long, roughly rectangular shaped in cross section, tubular shaped mold is used. Molten steel is poured into the upper, open end of the tube and flows through the tubular mold to gradually cool and solidify and, thereafter emerge from the opposite end thereof.
Such continuous molds are very large and heavy and, thus, are normally formed of mold sections, each forming a segment of the tubular mold, with the sections fastened together end to end to form the continuous mold passageway. Such sections are normally made of four plate-like members, namely, a pair of large primary or main mold members which are spaced apart in parallelism and a pair of side plate members.
In the casting process, the steel is normally poured downwardly to gravity flow through the tubular mold. However, the mold is normally curved along the direction of flow of the metal so that, ultimately, the cooled metal emerges in a horizontal direction for conveying away from the mold. Thus, it is necessary to curve the inner faces of the mold section primary or main plates so that each section continues the curvature of the preceding section and adds to it, to finally produce a right-angle turn in the flow of the metal. For this purpose, as well as to provide a casting surface or surface for contacting the metal and cooling it, the mold plates are usually formed in two parts. That is, the plates are formed of an outer backing plate member which may be a solid plate or a fabricated plate with suitable reinforcements, and an inner face plate which usually is formed of a copper or copper-like material which is a good heat conductor.
Suitable slot type cavities or passageways are formed in such plates for purposes of circulating water therethrough and thereby, providing a cooling medium for extracting the heat from the metal being cast. The efficiency of such cooling is important since it is relevant to the amount of water needed, the pumping and power and plumbing systems for supplying and removing water and also the rate of solidification of the metal being cast. Hence, the invention herein relates to an improved cooling system for the mold section side edge plate members which improves the efficiency and overall cooling of the system and eliminates temperature differences caused by curved type plates and straight type slots.